


A Guide to the American Wizarding School: Ilvermorny

by urguidetoIlvermorny



Category: Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (Movies), Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling, Ilvermorny - Fandom
Genre: Alternate History, Ancient History, Everyone is allowed to go to Ilvermorny, Harry Potter - Freeform, Hogwarts, I Wrote This Instead of Sleeping, Ilvermorny, Ilvermorny House - Horned Serpent, Ilvermorny House - Pukwudgie, Ilvermorny House - Thunderbird, Ilvermorny House - Wampus, Jk Rowling is a bitch, Spirits eat the homophobes, This is what I think, i eat the rich, transphobes are eaten too, we give people second chances but then down the hatch they go, we serve the sexists on a platter to the mermaids, wraiths eat the racists
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-04-17
Updated: 2020-06-25
Packaged: 2021-03-01 17:40:36
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 9
Words: 3,133
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23700964
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/urguidetoIlvermorny/pseuds/urguidetoIlvermorny
Summary: So friends, I’ve been thinking about many things, one of them being how shittily J.K Rowling has been doing with the American wizarding school, Ilvermorny. Therefore I have decided that it is my duty to give the rest of you the information that perhaps you desire. Here are my headcanons about Ilvermorny.Oh also, I own nothing about the universe, but these are my ideas and they are better the Joanne's
Comments: 7
Kudos: 21





	1. How Ilvermorny is set up

**Quick disclaimer: I know that J.K. Rowling has gotten fire from the Native American community for misrepresenting certain aspects of their mythology and culture while she was writing/creating the stuff that would become Ilvermorny and its background (all of this is totally warranted, since she did misrepresent they had every right to call her out.) Now personally, I don’t know if I’ll inadvertently end up speaking about any of the topics that were misrepresented, BUT IF I DO FUCKING TELL ME PLEASE I DON’T WANT TO BE INSULTING ANY CULTURE** ****

J.K. Rowling has decided that there is only one American school, that there is only one location. Now as we all know, there are a shit ton more people in the US than dear old England, so there are obviously going to be a shit ton more wizards. With the larger number of students, one school just doesn’t make sense. As people have speculated (mostly over tumblr and such) there would have to be a huge ass classroom to fit that many students. This however, is what I personally think and has not been influenced by tumblr posts. I propose an alternate solution. Ilvermorny is one campus, but not one school. What I mean to say is that there are multiple locations throughout the US, multiple schools and different teachers, but they all share the same campus. Each individual Ilvermorny school is magically connected with the others to form one giant campus. When the students go outside, it's as if the territory surrounding each school is melded together. It looks like one continuous place, but actually if you walk past the fountain over there, and that tree right there, you end up in California. If you take a right at the apple tree and take a left at the statue of the Eagle, you end up in Colorado. It’s like that, all of the smaller campuses are connected to create a bigger one. This way, all the students have enough professors to actually be able to teach them something, and they aren’t all over crowded. 

Not only this, Ilvermorny (the individual schools) is hidden from the muggle world by looking like either expensive log cabins up in the mountains or down in the woods. These two locations are the prime spot because most people don’t visit that often. Plus, these places are usually combined with a lot of land (acres) that are already “claimed.” This extra land makes up the individual campuses and gives the students places to stretch themselves out. 

With the different terrains surrounding each location, the type and number of magical creatures always varies. See in America, I would like to believe that the locations of the school also becomes some sort of sanctuary to magical creatures. If we go off of what J.K. Rowling has written, I think that makes sense. The founder of the school, Isolt Sayre, spends much of her time around magical creatures, and they are an important part of the school’s creation. (Off topic, but this is why I have trouble with Fantastic Beasts and where to find them. Magical creatures are treated horribly, even though they are an essential part to the founding of the wizarding school. PLUS I think it's weird that the FOUNDER of Ilvermorny was married to a No-maj and yet in Fantastic Beasts it's seen as an awful thing to even be around one, anyways, I digress.) Along with being a conservatory for these magical creatures, I think the students would interact quite often with the more social magical creatures and make bonds with them. Imagine a bunch of students making friends with the Bowtruckles in the Bowtruckle tree and walking around with them on their shoulders. Baiscally what I want is a bunch of freaking Newt Scamanders walking about making friends with magical murder creatures and defending their homes from logging, deforestation, pollution, poachers, hunters, and more. The magical creatures and students live in harmony (mostly, there are some dangerous ones that cause problems, but not too many.) 


	2. Basic Common Room Housing and Rules

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Here's what I think most of the houses have. thank

People share rooms with 4 other students, they can decorate it however they want as long as it isn’t permanent or can be hidden away, house elves ain’t snitches. These are divided by gender, but provides options for people who are non-binary,gender fluid, or anyone else who feels as if they don’t conform to a certain gender. Above the entrance to the common rooms, there is a place for every student to put their handprint. The tradition of the handprint is to do it at the beginning of the first year instead of the end of the last. For a while in America, it was very hard being a witch or a wizard, many of them died at the hands of persecution before they had made it to their last year.


	3. Dress Code/Uniforms

Ilvermorny does not have a strict dress code that all the houses have to follow like they do at Hogwarts, instead, they leave it up to each house to decide what to wear. The houses almost always unanimously vote for “no uniform.” While there is no uniform, each house usually has a certain style that marks it. Pukwudgies stick to comfortable (but durable) clothes that they can move, usually foresty colors for the aesthetic™. Wampuses also usually go for the comfort vibe, but with a more exercise centric type of clothing because I think they want to exhibit the warrior™ idea. Thunderbirds go with durable, easy to move in clothes with sturdy shoes so they are always ready to go adventuring™ in the forest. Horned Serpents wear comfortable things that are easy to put on and easy to take off, they have to work both as PJ’s and normal everyday clothes. Again these are not required, but it is usually what each house is seen in on an everyday basis. The dress code is more relaxed, there are no uniforms. Plus you can dye your hair and not get expelled for doing so. Piercings are fine, tattoos are fine, we don’t have sticks up our butt about that. There is still a dress code, but it’s like most public schools, where it’s like “no tube tops, don’t show your butt, don’t walk around shirtless.” It’s a dress code that makes sense and that isn’t overbearing


	4. Things That Roam the Halls

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It would make a lot more sense if Ilvermorny were founded by a Native American because they've been here forever and they would definitly have wizards. The fact that Joanne said it was founded by an Irish Immigrant is some colonist bullshit.

It is normal in Hogwarts to see the house ghosts wandering around, and other ghosts too, however, Ilvermorny doesn’t have any. Hogwarts is at least 1,000 years older than Ilvermorny, probably even older, which is why it has ghosts. Ilvermorny is full of spirits, but not dead witches and wizards. It is full of Wraiths, of curses with solid forms, of shadows and entities that whisper to you in the dark. England is scary because it’s old, America is scary because it's big. This marks the difference. The only reason Ilvermorny has scary creepy crawlies and shadows is because of how big it is, there are always nooks and crannies that are available to be moved into by any wraiths who needs a home. 


	5. Legends/Stories That The Students Have

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This will be updated as I come up with more bullshit

Now, all the students have come across shadow demons and wispy curses on their way to class, but they don’t think much of it after a while. There’s a first year turning the corner to see a huge black shadow writhing and screaming, only to address it calmly as “Greth” and asking it how its book of violent whispers has been going. Of course it took this particular first year a while to be able to be comfortable, but everyone comes around. Most of the spirits and curses get along decently with the students and sometimes even become fiercely protective of them. There was one time where a magical poacher had stumbled onto a campus in Oregon and tried to curse one of the Horned Serpent students for interfering. The moment the curse was fired, thousands of screaming voices could be heard as one of the Wraiths (commonly referred to as Godfrey) loomed over the poacher. All there is to say about that incident is that all that is left of that unfortunate wizard is a pile of bones that Godfrey added to their collection. The students know that most of these darklings are not there to hurt them and most make lifelong friends with the things that live in cracks. All spirits that mean any harm are quickly dealt with by the teacher and the other spirits who aren’t keen on their children getting hurt. 

Students usually avoid walking in the forest alone. It is known by everyone instinctively to take at least three people with you. While the magical creatures are fine and have gotten used to the students, there’s nothing that says the fae folk and the people of the forest won’t take advantage of a lonely soul. It is said that one night, a student went out on the Massachusetts campus alone in the dark. He walked into the forest because he was trying to find a certain type of luminous mushroom that only grew in the dark. One of the shadows had followed him from a distance, trying to keep him safe. The boy came across the mushroom, but what he hadn’t realized in the dark, was the fact that the mushroom was in the center of a fae circle. The fae originated in Europe, I am aware, but their power expands all over the globe, nowhere is safe. He entered that circle, he entered without permission, the shadow could only watch as he was slowly torn apart by thorns that grew under the skin. In the morning, when the shadow told the teachers where he was, they found only a humanoid rosebush, flowers blooming where there had been blood the night before.

The most important story any student will ever hear, it is the one that gives them nightmares and makes it hard to sleep. Beware the skinwalkers.

A student favorite is the story where some students in Florida taught the Bowtruckles that lived in a tree near their school Gen Z’s favorite slang. These Horned Serpent kids learned that Bowtruckles could effectively learn easy words, so the entire house spent a month dedicated only to seeing exactly the extent of what they could say. They also learned that the Bowtruckles would not say words that they didn’t like. Any word that started with an H was immediately rejected, along with the words “yeast” and “coyly”. What they did find out was that the Bowtruckles were big fans of every single curse word they could get their hands on. “Fuck”, “Bitch”, and “Shit” were heard throughout the forest after the first couple weeks. By the end of the month, the Horned Serpents finally got them to string a sentence together. The first actual sentence ever recorded to be said by a Bowtruckle was “This bitch empty, yeet.” This endevor, while found stupid by most adults, ended up with a revolution in the scientific community. The house published a paper on Bowtruckle speaking capabilities and preferences in the next two months. They were able to do so because like true scholars, they took meticulous notes on everything that happened. As the magical community found out, if you record it and have data, it counts a science.


	6. Pukwudgies

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> this will also be updated as I see fit, if y'all have any additions please tell me

Canonically, pukwudgies are known as the heart and they favor healers. That's super cool, but with these two traits, I would like to propose something else that they are known for, protecting. I believe that Pukwudgies would be the Protectors and the Healers, because I think these things go hand in hand. Also, I think they would be the most connected with the magical creatures around the school. In my head, I think they would be taking care of the orphaned creatures, helping the ones that are injured, and overall just having a fun time chilling in the fucking forest with some cool animals for company. I think the creature/pukwudgie connection is really important, I think it matches the vibe I want. 

Not only this, I think that learning how to shoot a bow would be an important house tradition. According to what I’ve seen, it looks like the actual creature carries around a bow that it uses to shoot people with poisoned arrows, so because of its namesake, I think they would want to learn the skill of shooting a bow. I think that every person gets a bow the day they get chosen, the bow is made of wood from the forest. All of the older students work together in groups to make enough bows for the younger students. Of course, it's wood from the same trees that are used to make wands or other slightly magical trees. This allows the people to cast a spell through the bow and into the arrow, therebye imbuing that arrow with any spell that they wish. I also think that they have a combination of different arrows and that each individual pukwudgie makes the arrows themselves. Anyways back to the different arrows, there's poison arrows, normal arrows, sleeping arrows and cursing arrows.

The common room, (or the house room or whatever we Americans decide to call our specific people only hangout places) would have many plants everywhere, herbs would be drying on the ceiling and there would be a section dedicated to making remedies along with a bunch or gauze and other No-maj products that help with healing. There’s a place on the wall where people can hang up their bows and also their cloaks that they used when going into the forest to heal animals or help them. 


	7. History

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hello yes. So let’s have a talk about the wizards g world and some comments Jk Rowling has made. 
> 
> First of all, let it be known that uh since I can do whatever I want on here cause this is fanfiction. I’m taking control of Ilvermorny from here on out, it’s mine now sorry JK. 
> 
> Second of all, let me make it clear that any student no matter their sexual orientation, sexuality, gender, race, religion or anything else is welcome in Ilvermorny. Okay? We all got that? Cool.

Once upon a time, wizards let anyone who possessed magic attend Ilvermorny. They thought that everyone deserved a chance, and that by giving that chance to people, America was less likely to have any problems with people like the death eaters or Voldemort. What they didn’t know was that by giving everyone a chance, by being nice to everyone, they were inidvertantly hurts other students. After all, wizards and witches are not impervious to the same beliefs as no-madjs. There were wizards and witches who came from families that supported home based terorist organizations. There were still others that were homophobic, who didn’t believe in the notion that people of the same gender could fall in love. And there were still others that obeyed the same patriarchy that had persisted through our country for hundreds of years. There were others who didn’t understand that some people were a different gender, some people were both genders, some were fluid, and some were neither. Hate is not a trait that is unique to the no madj community, it is something that perisists within every aspect of humanity. Many people seem to forget that. Many wizards and witches forget their history. A history where they were torched, burned, drowned, murdered. They seem to forget the persecution they went through. Because there are those magical inhabitants that burn, drown and murder countless of others because of their beliefs or who they love or who they are. They have forgotten their persecution and pursue the pain of others. 

America is a country that is born from blood, born from hate, born from revolution. America is a country that still bathed in the blood of its people. Ilvermorny was a place born of need, born of blood, born because of hate, and became a revolution. The truth of Ilvermorny is the truth of America. Can you not see? Ilvermorny, it was told to us, was created by a white woman, who came over from Great Britain and decided to take some land and make it her own. Where did she start off? Where did she first begin? Where was SHe taught? Who taught her? The Native Americans that embraced her with(somewhat) open arms. Yet the so called history we have learned from this pace refers only to the white woman and what she took. Leaving the Native Americans who helped her as only a sentence. Sound familiar to anyone who’s ever learned American history?? Ilvermorny is a story that repeats that of our own country.

The revolutions that gave us rights? Those were mirrored in the actions of the students of Ilvermorny. When women wanted the right to vote, when they wanted rights to their own body, the women of Ilvermorny protested along the no madjs. They protested in the castle grounds. When it came time for the civil rights era, black students organized that same sit ins, the same dine ins, the same walk outs, as students from any other school. When the LGBTQ+ community fought for their rights, the students of Ilvermorny were right there with them.

So let me take you back to my original point. Once upon a time, it was alright for the racists, and the sexists and the homophobes and all the other disgusting people in between to attend Ilvermorny. But after protests, after deaths, after riots, the staff finally saw that you can’t accept everyone. You cannot endanger an entire community just to accept one person. 

It is true, these people are given a chance to drift from the views of their parents and of their communities, but they are expelled if they endanger the lives of others. They are expelled when they make comments that are meant to tear someone apart. They die or they learn. That’s has been the way of humanity forever. Why change now. Even wizards and witches follows these natural laws.


	8. School/house pride

Okay so, while I said there are no uniforms, that does not mean there is no house pride or school pride. There is still school merch stuff like any other college and Highschool. There are sweat pants and sweatshirts and sweaters and more. There’s stuff for wampum, pukwudgie, thunderbird, and Horned Serpant. There’s stuff for Ilvermorny itself. Not only that theres stuff dedicated to each campus/branch of Ilvermorny. It’s optional, not required.


	9. A conversation on cleaning

Since Ilvermorny is a safe haven for magical creatures it makes NO SENSE FOR IT TO HAVE HOUSE ELVES. HOUSE ELVES AND AN EXCUS FOR SLAVERY. And so, all chores and clean up is done by magic. You can easily have a bunch of ever lasting spells that deal with sweeping when need be, or dealing with dirty clothes. Cooking can be done in shifts by students and staff. In America we have so many different cultures, so many different people. And so we give students and staff the opportunity to share their culture through cooking and food! That way everyone eats a taste of home every now and then. Plus there are spells for cooking too, ya know? There’s always cookies and pastries for people who want them, but breakfast, lunch and dinner are all made by the people who go to Ilvermorny.

**Author's Note:**

> Hey, y'all  
> this bullshit has been going through my head for the past year and I finally decided to write it down. Please tell me what you think of it!


End file.
